The Maha Vikas Aghadi government expects by March second week clearance from the Central Environment Commission attached to the Ministry of Environment and Forest and the final lease agreement from the ministry of coal for the Gare Palma sector-II coal block located in the Mand Raigarh coalfields in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district. Even though the Centre had allocated the coal block spread across a 2,583.486 hectare area with geological reserves of 1,059.761 million tonne (mt) in 2017 to the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MahaGenco), the development of mining could not start due to procedural and environmental issues.
Maharashtra Minister of Energy Nitin Raut, said,"MahaGenco has already received forest clearance and other approvals from the Centre and the Chhattisgarh government. The environment clearance is expected by the second week of March, which will pave way for the company to sign the land agreement with the local authorities.